-=> JASEN BETTS wrote to KURT WISMER <=-

 KW>> o "email viruses" are OFF-TOPIC!  They do NOT exist!

 JB>> Are we supposed to call them worms instead?

 KW> yes, email worm would be the proper term... i have, on quite a number
 KW> of occasions now, battled against the use of the term "email virus"
 KW> as it is misleading (it suggests the email is 'infected' when in fact
 KW> it is not and cannot be due to the specifications of what an email
 KW> is)...

 JB> but they're not worms because they don't spread by themselves...

that is not necessarily part of the definition of a worm...

from the virus-l/comp.virus FAQ:

B2)  What is a Worm?

A computer WORM is a self-contained program (or set of programs), that
is able to spread functional copies of itself or its segments to other
computer systems (usually via network connections).

Note that unlike viruses, worms do not need to attach themselves to a
host program.  There are two types of worms--host computer worms and
network worms.

Host computer worms are entirely contained in the computer they run on
and use network connections only to copy themselves to other computers.
Host computer worms where the original terminates itself after launching
a copy on another host (so there is only one copy of the worm running
somewhere on the network at any given moment), are sometimes called
"rabbits."

Network worms consist of multiple parts (called "segments"), each
running on different machines (and possibly performing different
actions) and using the network for several communication purposes.
Propagating a segment from one machine to another is only one of those
purposes.  Network worms that have one main segment which coordinates
the work of the other segments are sometimes called "octopuses."

The infamous Internet Worm (perhaps covered best in "The Internet Worm
Program: An Analysis," Eugene H. Spafford, Purdue Technical Report CSD-
TR-823) was a host computer worm, while the Xerox PARC worms were
network worms (a good starting point for these is "The Worm Programs--
Early Experience with a Distributed Computation," Communications of the
ACM, 25, no.3, March 1982, pp. 172-180).


 JB> the user has to alteast run the email application and usually open the
 JB> message too and often then open(or run) an attachment...

that doesn't make it any less a worm...

 JB> how is infected defined that it can apply to floppy disks but not to
 JB> email messages? (or can it not apply to floppy disks?)

in the computer virus context infection is the act of attaching oneself
to a host program in such a way that when an attempt is made to execute
the host program the 'infector' is executed as well as or instead of the
host program...

technically floppy disks themselves don't get infected except in the
same sense that a computer gets infected... what actually gets infected
on a floppy disk (in general) is the bootsector program so one would say
the floppy bootsector is infected (to say the floppy is infected is
sloppy but it's an understood contraction among those who've been around
a the block a few times)...

in the case of email, on the other hand, there is nothing to infect...
email is just a container, it's specifications do not include any type
of executable or interpretable code and therefore cannot be infected...
they can contain infectious material, but that's all (until such time as
the specifications for what constitute 'email' change)...

really, one could very easily say (in the biological virus context) that
a particular needle is infected but you and i both know that there is no
virus that infects needles, needles don't get sick or run down... the
needle is contaminated and it is imprecise terminology usage to call it
'infected'...

 
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